Turtle-song

For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

Song of Solomon

 

a mistranslation – it seems – for turtle-doves

and a smug glee in scholars

till curiosity leads to

creaky quacks    grunts    squeals

and oddly plaintive trills

by which these carapace-d ancients

call from their solitary habits

for yearly company

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and after the anxious blind scramble through warm-dark sand

turtle-song is not in sound but sea

the pulse of plankton-surge

diving  and  swelling  in  weightless  chords

to doze long days in the contented

wordless companionship of birds

 

 

~ by Reason plays no part on March 11, 2011.